Real estate designs have mostly focused on providing privacy for each building or each unit within a building from its neighboring building or units. There exists a need to provide privacy between two groups in particular building arrangements such as owners and renters who occupy owner-occupied multifamily dwellings.
Owner-occupied twin or duplex homes are known in the art, whereby the owner lives on one side of the building and rents the other side. These dwellings provide no group privacy and consequently many have converted to all rental units. Additionally, some older single family homes have been converted into multifamily dwellings by adding an alley at the back for parking. These are often found on college campuses where older homes have converted to off campus apartments. Other multifamily dwellings called flats copied this idea to enable parking at the front and back. These communities of flats were originally conceived for owners to live on one entire floor with a rental unit on a second floor and, if it was a 3 flat, a rental unit on a third floor. The front and back parking did not solve any group privacy issues. That arrangement was a means to provide additional parking and not an attempt at improving privacy between owners and renters.
Real estate construction is unique in that it must be built to building, fire and zoning codes among other restrictions. These codes have become much more restrictive in recent years. Older dwellings have not been built to meet local modern building, fire, or zoning codes or other requirements. There remains a need for a building arrangement that provides sufficient privacy, accommodates two or more entities, and meets all necessary code requirements.